Ekklesia coverage of the US election and its aftermath

Ekklesia coverage of the US election and its aftermath

Ekklesia provided 16 hours of live updates across the last day and half of the US presidential campaign and polling. We have updated this to include reaction and comment in the immediate aftermath of President Obama's re-election.

* 'God Is Still Not A Republican, Or A Democrat'. Jim Wallis (CEO of Sojourners, has links with President Obama) and Wes Granberg-Michaelson (served as General Secretary for the Reformed Church in America from 1994 to 2011 and previously Legislative Assistant to Republican Senator Mark O. Hatfield) have reiterated their bipartisan message on the 'God's Politics' blog. http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/11/05/god-still-not-republican-or-democrat[9]

* 'A Milestone En Route to a Majority Minority Nation' - Pew Social Trends. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/11/07/a-milestone-en-route-to-a-majo...[10] The minority groups that carried President Obama to victory yesterday by giving him 80 per cent of their votes are on track to become a majority of the nation’s population by 2050, according to projections by the Pew Research Center. (Hat-tip to Sheldon C Good, @sheldoncg).

* 'One nation under McDonalds' - Prospect Magazine. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/blog/us-embassy-london-election/[12] Though the major parties were at loggerheads during the election, and there are genuine differences between the 'small government' and 'social government' ideologies of the GOP and the Democrats, they are also part of one corporate reality. The traditional soiree at the US Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square embodies this, as the 'great and good' gather under the patronage of - this year - McDonalds (who provided the food), Kellogs, Starbucks, Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, HCA International, Fulbright, Goldman Sachs (of course!), Estee Lauder, Pillsbury, Paul Weiss, Northern Trust, Sidley, Time Warner, and several others whose logos were too indistinct to recognise from the menu photo. For which, hat-tip to Bernadette Meaden again. (And no, she wasn't there).

* 'Religious Right Myths Exposed': "The Religious Right took a drubbing at the polls yesterday as voters rejected not only Mitt Romney but also some of the most extreme Republican candidates, even those in races that should have been easy Republican victories. Like other conservatives, many Religious Right activists predicted a big victory for Romney and Republicans in the US Senate based on five myths they hold about the electorate," says RightWingWatch. Take at look at them here: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/five-religious-right-myths-exposed...[13]

* The complex and painful issue of abortion was politicised in the most unseemly way during the presidential campaign, with some politicians making repellant and extraordinary statements about rape, 'God's will', and women. They were all defeated. Thanks to Del Paterson for curating these remarks, unpleasant reading though they may make. https://twitter.com/delpaterson/status/266267785766789120/photo/1[14]

"I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting." - Barack Obama, from his speech after re-election

* Gracious concession speech by Mitt Romney. The Republicans in Boston look shell-shocked. They clearly believed their own propaganda and didn't read the polls.

* Historic acceptance tweet: @BarackObama We're all in this together. That's how we campaigned, and that's who we are. Thank you. -bo

Tuesday 6 November 2012

04.55 GMT / 23.55 EST

* With Nevada called for Obama, he would be one over the 270 threshold even without Ohio at the moment.

* Marnie Glickman (@marniemix), former co-chair Green Party of the USA and managing director of Green Party of California: "Jill Stein earned more votes tonight than any other Green Party member who ever ran for president. I'm so proud to be Green."

* Bishop Gene Robinson, Episcopal New Hampshire (@BishopGRobinson): "So happy for women, #LGBT people, the uninsured, the 99 per cent, the 47 per cent, Medicare/Medicaid recipients, Pell grantees, for ALL of us in America."

04.50 GMT / 23.50 EST

* Obama on his way to Chicago, but waiting for a phone call from Romney conceding. At the moment it's not coming. Some in the GOP still talking about contesting Ohio.

* Colorado called for Obama (AP).

* Popular vote: Obama 70,000 behind, but big states like California still to declare. He'll definitely edge it, by around 2 million votes.

04.20 GMT / 23.20 EST

* Three networks are calling Ohio for Obama, and projecting he will be returned as president. Chicago explodes with joy.

* Leading environmentalist Bill McKibben (@billmckibben): So Barack Obama never has to run again. Now we'll find out what he really thinks about a lot of things.

* Florida will not declare until tomorrow, but it will not matter. It looks as if Obama is over the 270 electoral college threshold with 275 so far. Ekklesia's prediction was 300 overall. It was so close in North Carolina, that Obama might well have won if he'd campaigned there.

* Just a few minutes after the polls close in 49 of the 50 states, the presidential result seems clear. Unprecedented, given the economic situation. But the GOP has become a party too closely tied to narrow interests, and tax cuts for the rich are not seen by most Americans as a solution.

* Ekklesia contributor Bernadette Meaden (@BernaMeaden): "For all the money spent, seems like volunteers on the ground have got vote out and secured it for Obama. People Power!"

* Bill Clinton was the one who gave Obama 'the narrative' in an extraordinary nomination speech.

* Not just a defeat for the Republicans, "but the beginning of a historical problem" says a NYT commentator on PBS America.

* Awaiting final numbers in House and Senate.

04.05 GMT / 23.05 EST

* Matthew Paul Turner (@JesusNeedsNewPR): "NBC says that Romney wins Missouri. In other news, Jesus has no plans of returning triumphantly to Missouri." For those who don't know, Mormons believe that Jesus will return to earth, first to Jerusalem, and will then rule from Missouri. Romney got into an angry pickle about this bizarre belief with a talk-show host earlier in the year. It went viral on the internet.

* NBC calls Missouri for Romney, where early exit polls show that 76 per cent of "white, born again Christians" supported him (21 per cent for Obama) Huffington Post.

* Frank Schaeffer, the son of the late highly conservative evangelical scholar Francis Schaeffer, has a pungent article on Patheos entitled 'How the Evangelicals Doomed the Republican Party, God and (Maybe) America' - http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankschaeffer/2012/11/how-the-evangelicals...[19] Frank disavowed his father's theology and right-wing politics, converting to Eastern Orthodoxy. His article contains some moot points, though it will be off-putting in its tone to some. He stresses: "Not all Evangelicals are Right-leaning Republicans. But according to polls 73 per cent are. That’s the folks I’m talking about here."

* Still voting in key swing state Virginia, due to the long lines (queues) when the polls closed.

* There is a whole raft of initiatives and referendums on state ballots. We offer a summary here, with comments where appropriate on issues of social justice relating to these proposals. http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17326[21]

* Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan projected to lose their home states. The drift seems to be going to Obama, but the BBC's Mark Mardell warns, "Romney has to win Florida - and Virginia and Ohio to win - it's still a nail biter."

* On the other hand, Mike Smithson of http://politicalbetting.com/[24] (which is where I'd put my money if I was a betting man) declares: "To win Romney now needs to win all three of Virginia, Florida and Ohio - which is looking unlikely." I agree.

02.35 GMT / 21.35 EST

* Quarter of precincts to go, Romney up 51:47 in Virginia. Fox calls Wisconsin for Obama. GOP running out of 'battlegrounds' (isn't this military language horrible, and revealing).

* The subversive potential of Election Day Communion: my take on the attempt of some churches today to re-root politics in community, sharing, remembering and crossing boundaries. http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17325[25]

* What would a truly people-powered #election2012 look like? asks Waging Nonviolence (http://wagingnonviolence.org/[26]). What do we mean by "politics"? Are we glued to our screens watching people power or corporate power? The real outcome of the #2012Election depends not on how you vote but on how you organise. The result: more drones, more wars, more debt for the poor, more protection for the rich? Another way is needed.

01.52 GMT / 20.52 EST

* The Election Protection Coalition serves as a nonpartisan voter protection organisation, with trained volunteers answering questions and recording reports of election abnormalities across all precincts. By 5:30 pm on Tuesday, the organisation said it had received 74,679 calls. Voting problems in Ohio, Texas, according to election protection volunteers. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/voting-problems-ohio-texas_n_20...[27]

* "Money takes issues off the table." An astute point in the PBS America studio discussion.

01.30 GMT / 20.30 EST

* Multiple studies have all come to the same conclusion: The rate of voter fraud in American elections is close to zero. But GOP's 10-year campaign to gin up voter fraud hysteria, and bring back Jim Crow at the ballot box, has not relented. It's increased. Kevin Drum recounts 'The Dog That Voted and Other Election Fraud Yarns' for Mother Jones. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/voter-suppression-kevin-drum[28]

* Michael Beschloss points out on PBS America that independent and third party candidates are not playing a major role because of the dominance of big money in US electoral politics. In spite of that, they do best when they have a cause. People like the idea of an underdog, but are reluctant to vote for them. Polarisation is also a problem. Rational appeal suffers in an emotive atmosphere. Good discussion. http://www.pbsamerica.co.uk/[29]

01.11 GMT / 20.11 EST

* This could be the most diverse United States electorate in history, say analysts of early returns in the hotly contested 2012 presidential election. That's the view of Ben La Bolt, President Obama's campaign secretary. He was talking to PBS America after the first polls closed across the nation. Independent analysis is tending to back up that view. http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17324[30]

* Interesting point on PBS. Asian-Americans going 68-70 per cent for the Democrats. Immigration is one issue, but also world view. More community-oriented sectors (Asian-Americans, Latinos, Jews, Catholic) feel out of synch with an individualist, anti-welfare Republican style.

00.37 GMT / 19.37 EST

* Republican led re-districting in North Carolina and elsewhere is removing Democrat seats. It's also happened the other way in Illinois. PBS America.

* It looks like Bernie Sanders, the longest serving independent in congressional history, and a democratic socialist to boot, has held his senate seat in Vermont. I met him briefly in Nicaragua in 1985. A compelling advocate for social justice. He doesn't see politics just in terms of elections. He wrote before the election: "I'm afraid that if we don't create a strong progressive movement, then the big money interests will win once again." http://www.sanders.senate.gov/[32]

00.04 GMT / 19.04 EST

* With long lines still in view, many Virginia polling places are staying open, but only for those already in line. Several states in the process of closing polls.

* 2,500 lawyers out in Ohio alone. There are 200,000 'provisional' votes registered, which in theory could take 15 days to verify and count if things really went down to the wire.

* YouGov poll showing Obama with a two per cent lead in Virginia. If that's true, it should be a relatively comfortable night for him.

* Percentage of white voters down one point from 2008 to 73 per cent. Expectation was that Romney needed 75 per cent. Black voters are the same at 13 per cent. Latino vote is up one point to 10 per cent.

* Polls in six states will close at 7pm EST, including swing state Virginia.

22.50GMT / 17.50 EST

* Good Ekklesia friend Aled Edwards (http://www.alededwards.com/[34]), General Secretary of the Welsh ecumenical body Cytun, is embedded with the Obama campaign in the New York at the moment (in a personal capacity), working out whether to head down to Times Square for the results. Go on, Aled! He wrote earlier: "Obama volunteers in New York upbeat and hard working this morning making thousands of calls to Ohio. They are kind about my English accent!"

22.45GMT / 17.45 EST

* Broadcasters in Britain are maintaining the "too close to call" narrative overall. Though they are twitching towards the sense of some professional pollsters that Obama will end up fine in the electoral college. The most robust figure I've been sent is 313 college votes. I think it'll be fewer than that, but admit my limitations as a psephologist.

* I'll be doing a number of radio interviews about the election. One probably added to the roster earlier today is Transworld Radio. I'll keep you posted. My BBC interview on Sunday, about religion and politics in the US, can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/sunmorn#playepisode1[35] The interview starts at around 11.10 minutes into the podcast. [Hat-tip to Chris Luxton for digging this out]

* Not everyone is convinced by Sunny Hundal's defence of Obama [see under 21.42 GMT / 16.42 EST below]. One tweet to me: "[Obama] surpassed even FDR? Bloody hell. I've heard some tripe in my time...". The article is better than the headline, which is indeed slightly difficult to get beyond.

In Greensboro, N.C., voters reported that touchscreen machines switched their votes from Romney to Obama. On Friday, the Colorado secretary of state's office said it was looking into claims made by the Pueblo County's Republican party that their touchscreens were doing the same thing.

The problems aren't isolated to the screens flubbing voter attempts to pick a presidential candidate. In Virginia Beach Tuesday, a voter sent a video of a touchscreen failing to register either YES or NO votes for a proposed light rail referendum for the city.

As many as 25 per cent of Americans this year will vote on machines with no voter-verifiable paper record, according to http://VerifiedVoting.org[37].

22.04 GMT / 17.04 EST

* A public watchdog group is charging the US Conference of Catholic Bishops with openly politicking on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and it wants the Internal Revenue Service to explore revoking the hierarchy’s tax-exempt status - reports Dave Gibson on Religion News Service. See: http://www.religionnews.com/politics/election/watchdog-group-asks-irs-to...[38]

“In completely unqualified terms, the IRS should immediately tell the Conference of Catholic Bishops that the conduct of its members is beyond the pale,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

21.42 GMT / 16.42 EST

* Despite a way over-the-top headline, Sunny Hundal gives a good overview of what he sees as Barack Obama's strengths and weaknesses on @libcon, and delivers something of a riposte to those who argue that there is essentially no difference between him and Romney, or between the programmes (or lack of them) on offer. http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/11/05/why-obama-is-the-most-radically-...[39] The issue is that the space for manoeuvre atop the US presidential system, in contention with the House of Representatives, and deeply embedded in corporate America, is slim indeed. But a difference can be made within it, and alternatives can be developed without to challenge the political architecture. I made comment on the realities of this and how we contend them in 'Principle, compromise, rebellion and Jill Stein' (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17307[40]) yesterday.

20.38 GMT / 15.38 EST

* Romney tweets that people should vote for him because "America [is] the hope of the earth". This ought to have all Christians up in non-violent arms, but worship of country, dollar and empire have long subverted 'religion' in the US, especially among evangelicals.

* Veteran (Democrat) pollster Stan Greenberg tells Channel 4 News that he is now expecting "a big win" for President Obama, despite talks about a 'close race'. http://www.channel4.com/news/us-election-when-to-watch-and-how-it-works[42] "Remember him telling me that Labour was set for landslide in '97. A good judge," tweets ex-spin doctor Charlie Wheelan.

* Prof Cornel West (http://www.cornelwest.com/[44]), 'champion for racial justice through the traditions of the black Church, progressive politics and jazz', asks, "How do we hold all leaders accountable over the next 4 years, including those who steward public media?" @CornelWest

* "'To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle,' George Orwell once wrote. What I see in front of my nose is a president whose character, record, and promise remain as grotesquely under-appreciated now as they were absurdly hyped in 2008." - prominent commentator Andrew Sullivan, urging 'Lincoln Republicans' to vote for Obama. http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/11/obama-for-president.html[47]

'Jesus, Muslims, Mormons. And Missouri', by Haroon Moghul, a Fellow at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. From the excellent Religion Dispatches. "What Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan say on these matters is of interest, if only because our relationships with the Muslim world matter, though perhaps not as much as our relationships to our fellow Americans—those we include, or exclude, when we reference 'Judaeo-Christian, Western-civilisation values,' which often means little more than Ayn Rand with a dusting of theology, probably only to assuage the corporate guilt." http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/haroonmoghul/6587/jesus%2C_...[50]

* Election Day Communion: One of the goals of the Election Day Communion Campaign is to build Christian unity and conversation in the midst of theological, political, and denominational differences. http://electiondaycommunion.org/[53]

17.40 GMT / 12.40 EST

* Civil rights groups are concerned that the Pennsylvania voter identification law, which was blocked by a state judge, is nevertheless being enforced in precincts around the state. Huffington Post.

* Filling the global economic justice hole in the recent US presidential debates: 'Share the World's Resources', an analysis that quantifies the scale of what is currently wrong and spells out the spectrum of change that could be achieved if these colossal money flows could be re-directed. http://www.stwr.org/[57] Ably summarised here: http://tinyurl.com/cb3qrs2[58] Hat-tip to @RichardMurphy, an essential (Quaker) voice on economic and tax issues.

* Fox News is asking, "Is it time to get rid of the Electoral College?" This is code for "we think our guy might not win", though they aren't going to say that. They weren't that worried when Gore won the popular vote but Bush took the College on a few hanging chads. The College system (http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html[62]) is definitely in need of reform, however.

* In case you missed last night's Third Party Debate #3partydebate, you can watch Gary Johnson (Libertarian) in exchange with Jill Stein Green Party USA) on RT America's YouTube channel: http://on.rt.com/tpixr5[64]

* 'Nationalism, Elections, and Idolatry': John Nugent, a young scholar of the Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, has recently written an entry on “nation/nationalism” for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Bible and Ethics. Out of that research he is writing three blog posts timed for the US presidential election which offer a dissenting view and defend non-voting. http://emu.edu/now/anabaptist-nation/2012/10/30/elections-idolatry/[65]

14.50 GMT / 09.50 EST

* All the major polls are tilting towards Barack Obama in the majority of swing states. But the turnout will be crucial. The gap in the electoral college will be much larger than in the public vote. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Current Ekklesia prediction: 300 to Obama.

* Mitt Romney is visiting airports in Cleveland and Pittsburgh today, betting an 11th-hour appeal to working-class voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania to switch his way. Supporters say this is a sign of enthusiasm; critics say it shows he knows he is losing. Campaigning on election day is unusual in the US.

* As US voters go to the polls in the presidential election today, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu invoked the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. on a brief but enthusiastic visit to Wales. http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17318[66]

* "Jesus for President. Amish for Homeland Security. We have some good ideas for serious change in America" - progressive evangelicals Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw are the authors of Jesus for President, which Publisher’s Weekly has declared “the must-read election-year book for American Christians.”

As polls indicate that the tight US presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is heading Obama's way, the Republican Party (GOP) is being accused of using religious scare tactics in a desperate attempt to swing the vote. http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17317[68]